Okay, everyone has great suggestions. Does anyone know if you can use an amp meter to tell how many amps are being drawn from let's say H.I.D. lights, or a sound system?
I tried the copper line once, and the inside diameter was so small, the guage was slow to respond to pressure changes, so I switched to the supplied plastic line, much better. I've used the plastic line for years on different cars and never had a problem, maybe I've been lucky, but I've always been careful in how its routed. Mark
I use mechanical and electric from different brands in different cars. For oil pressure I always make sure to have and the gauge and the original dash warning light hooked up (T-fitting). (don't have original gauges in any of the Buicks) One thing not mentioned yet are the looks. Non of the Autometer gauges I really like. One of the gauges I would like to purchase is a set of Stewart Warner Green Line :dollar: :dollar:, but the car hobby is already consuming too much, so that probably is not going to happen. New:
There is a lot of mis-information on this subject and I hate to see that, so here is a more clear explanation. Both the voltmeter and the ammeter have their place, and you cannot really get a clear picture of what your electrical system is doing without both. You can think of electric flow like the water in a garden hose. Voltage is the pressure and amperage is the amount of flow. You can have full pressure without any flow and you can have full flow without any (very little) pressure. So each gage only gives you half of the picture. Let's say your battery goes dead but you don't know why. If you had both gages you would know immediately whether it was the battery, the alternator, or possibly some other problem. If voltage is high, amperage is high and the battery is not charging there's a diode blown in the alternator and it's passing AC instead of DC. If the voltage is high but the amperage is low the battery is not taking a charge and is either dead or has a bad connection. If the voltage is low the alternator is bad or the belt is slipping or there is a heavy electrical load, which you can see by running the same test with the engine not running. If there is a current drain with the key off... etc. Some of these indications you can see with the voltmeter, some with the ammeter, but you have to have both to see them all. Not only that, but the interaction of the two gages will tell you more about what is going on than either or both of them if you don't take what one is doing in light of what is shown by the other. So the real answer is that you need both. It is most definitely not an either/or scenario, that's like comparing apples and cake. JB
